We Were Rich and We Didn't Know It

In the tradition of Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes and Alice Taylor's To School Through the Fields, Tom Phelan's We Were Rich and We Didn't Know It is a heartfelt and masterfully written memoir of growing up in Ireland in the 1940s. Tom Phelan, who was born and raised in County Laois in the Irish midlands, spent his formative years working under his wise and demanding father, JohnJoe, on a farm that was often wet, muddy, and back-breaking. These stories recount Tom's upbringing in an isolated rural community from the day he was delivered by the local midwife. As a child, Tom became aware that priests lived in warm, dry houses and saw that they never had muck or dung on their polished shoes. He began to dream of becoming a priest and traveling to sunny foreign missions, where he would baptize and teach pagan children. We Were Rich and We Didn't Know It offers you a glimpse of life in the Irish countryside in the 1940s, a...